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For just pennies a day you could save a bartender from a horrible life of boredom. Everyday in bars, just like the ones in your backyard, bartenders are forced to make vodka sodas - one after another - with little or no break for creativity. Long gone are the days where people ordered Rusty Nails, Harvey Wallbangers and other cocktails with personality. Where the thin layer of frost, amassed on the body of the cocktail shaker, indicated the flavorful, mouth-watering elixir was ready to drink. We have become a culture of ____ and tonic.
It’s time for a change.
It’s likely the problem is originating on both sides. ____ and tonics are easy for the bartenders to make, taking little or no time to prepare, which means more drinks and more tips. There is no motivation (other than personal pride in the profession) to push multi-ingredient, several-step concoctions. This is tragic because the level of creativity and skill in the profession is greater today than it has ever been. And we the patrons get stuck in our ruts. It’s easier for us to order the same thing night after night than to try something new. You know it’s bad when your friends can order your drink without having to ask you what you want. But that’s all the more reason to branch out and try something new. Here are the cocktails to mix things up but won’t take you too far from comfort.
Vodka and tonic drinker, try:
Moscow Mule – vodka, lime juice, ginger-ale
Salty Dog – vodka, grapefruit juice, ginger-ale, sparkling lemonade
Kir Lethale – vodka, crème de cassis, champagne
Gin and tonic drinker, try:
Gimlet – gin, lime juice
Horse’s Neck – gin, lemon, gin, ginger-ale
White Lady – gin, Cointreau, lemon juice
Gin Smash – gin, sugar, fresh mint
Whiskey and soda drinker, try:
Manhattan – rye whiskey, dry and sweet vermouth
Mint Julep – bourbon, sugar, mint leaves
Blizzard – bourbon, cranberry juice
Highland Morning – scotch, Cointreau, grapefruit juice
With your pledge and support we can help re-spark their creativity, provide guidance and give them the chance…(pregnant pause)…to be bartenders again. Please act now.
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who let the skirt write a piece about drinking?
yay!!!! i want a tom collins now!
Hey, I order Rusty Nails All The Time!
part of the reason why i don't order more compilcated drinks in bars is because a lot of bartenders in this town don't even know how to make a proper martini. i'll order more exciting drinks if it's on a menu, which means that the bartender is (hopefully) trained to make these drinks. have you ever ordered a margarita at a bar that's not part of a latin restaurant? TERRIBLE. there are too few bartenders employed who know the right proportions of ingredients.
I'll have another Four Roses and Fresca, and thish time, make it hurt...
I cannot imagine how anyone can stand the taste of tonic water. Disgusting!
everybody, start ordering Sidecars (cognac, cointreau, lemon juice: shaken with ice, strained into martini glass with sugared rim) so that more bartenders know how to make them and make them well. it is an awesome drink.
often whenever i order anything beyond a "__ and tonic" the response is "what's in that?" you're better off making cocktails yourself.
[6], maybe your problem is you're drinking tonic water straight.
Too many bartenders in this town can't make a drink with more then two ingredients, let alone something exciting like a Pink Squirrel. I'm so tired of having to guide a bartender on how to make a proper Manhattan or Martini AND then have to tip!! WTF
You have to go to great bars to get great drinks. And if anyone wants to break out of a drink routine, I'd highly recommend charging over to Cafe Gray and drinking in the brasserie. Matthew Conway, drinks director and sommelier, has worked with staff to create some stunning cocktails, including one with gin called a Thai Bulldog that I loved. And I hate gin! The drink calls for Bulldog Gin (hence the name), a little Lillet, a splash of Orange Juice, some Thai Basil Syrup (that has to be Gray Kunz's influence), finished wtih resh Thai Basil that's muddled then strained from the drink. It blew me away...
Sidecars? Pink squirrels?... What is this, a San Fransisco piano bar?
But I've been trying for years now to give bartender's back their pride. They don't want it back. Nine out of ten bartenders don't know how to make the cocktails you list above. They'll give you a Manhattan made with bourbon if you don't stop them. And I guarantee you a Moscow Mule will stump them. Your cause is virtuous. But if they don't want to heal themselves, how can we?
2nd on the Manhattan - though I think it's normally made with bourbon - only recently have better quality ryes started to make it in there. Had it both ways and either one is great.
The old fashioned is a nice alternative to straight up whiskey, too. It's essentially whiskey, with some bitters, a little frut, muddled, a tiny bit of sugar and stirred with ice to dilute it. Occasionally it's made with scotch, but I find it's better with bourbon. Takes a long time to make one correctly, though.
I'd suggest a Negroni to the more adventurous - equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and campari - very bitter, but a great summer drink.
Also a big fan fan of the 1/2 Gin-1/2 Vodka Martini - very dry with a twist instead of an olive.
a manhatton is NOT made with bourbon
Yes, a Manhattan is NOT made with bourbon. However the resurgence of the Manhattan rose with the resurgence of small batch bourbons during the mid 90s, hence the confusion. It is indeed originally made with Rye. But Rye has not had the injection of hip that bourbon has received.
Another good one for Gin drinkers is the Singapore Sling.
* 30ml gin
* 15ml Heering Cherry Liqueur
* 7.5ml D.O.M Benedictine
* 7.5ml Cointreau
* 120ml Pineapple juice
* 15ml fresh lime juice
* 10ml grenadine
* dash of Angostura bitters
* Garnish: maraschino cherry, pineapple chunk, and orange slice
Bartenders do need some saving. I love Negronis, but have given up on ordering them because a good 3/4 of the time they don't have a clue what it is. Or the bartender will say "we don't have that," at which point I have to start explaining to them how its made (which I don't particularly like).
Now I just order a gin and Campari, unless it is clear that the bartender knows his or her stuff.
A Manhattan is bitters, sweet vermouth, rye whiskey and a maraschino cherry - but not those fake red abominations. They aren't food and should not come near anything you put into your body.
One is not supposed to shake a Manhattan. Shaking it bruises the whiskey and makes it cloudy. Amateur bartenders default to shaking things too much. Its a Manhattan, not a frickin' margarita. (Don't get me started on margaritas - thats an entire other post).
The only place that managed to make a Manhattan correctly without me having to explain was at Superfine, and at Death and Co.
And if you need to explain to a bartender how to make a drink, it will likely piss them off and the drink will come out worse than if you didn't tell them. And if they make it wrong, then you're out $10 and all pissed off trying to choke down this round so you can leave a get a real drink.
So, I think it would be better advice to tell people to order whatever is good at the place they are at. You don't order something complicated at a dive-bar-shot-and-a-beer kind of place.
However, at such a place in Hoboken there is a bartender I managed to train, but having a personal relationship with a bartender causes much bigger problems and is not always recommended - It is only for those with no day job and a young, healthy liver.
In summary, the problem is squarely with the bartenders. If bartenders would avoid short cuts, put away the roses lime juice and started squeezing it fresh, people would change their habits. If bartenders learned how to really make a drink, I am sure customers would start ordering things that are more complicated, instead of just ordering something that is hard to screw up.
Shout out to Joaquim at Death and Co. Best bartender ever. Except for maybe Miss Lola Belle at Enid's, but thats another class of bartender.
Great Post. Hits home
Needing something more than the old G&T, I started my site Drink of the Week.
http://www.drinkoftheweek.com
Cheers